More experiments in ink-wash, this time with Captain America. I wanted to see how the technique might look with a comic book-style pinup, but I also wanted to try some sumi-e on an urban setting.

Though I want to create a ink-wash comic style looser than Ditko’s and Thomas Yeates’, this is a bit muddy for my taste. I didn’t really plan out the background as well as I should have, and the sky also looks like shit. I should’ve just keep the natural elements with the sumi-e style brushwork, and using the crow quill more in the foreground.

(That fist also reminds me a lot of Sam Kieth. I’ll probably try to go more cartoon-like in my character design.)

I don’t know if George Romero has ever wished he had become known for something other than zombie stories, but, damn, he does them well. The first issue of his new comic Empire of the Dead: Act Oneis full of promise.

Five years after zombies first made their gory appearance, something like a society has survived in New York City. In certain neighborhoods, zombies are still a threat, and in other parts of twon, zombies provide gruesome entertainment. Rather than the simple survival-horror that so many zombie stories are (Romero’s included) Empire of the Dead seems headed for a more directly political angle, featuring politicians who are secretly vampires. That’s right: vampires.

There are other changes in our monster menagerie, as some of the zombies have noticeable signs of intelligence. They all can be trained, but some of them play checkers. One zombie in particular has her own THOUGHT BUBBLES.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure that Romero could deliver something new to the genre that he created, but I’ll be checking out this floppy every month. Empire of the Dead: Act One is an All-New Marvel comic (but it appears to exist in its own universe, without X-Men or Avengers, normal or zombie.)

That’s not entirely true. I did see Gravity because, well, it had to be seen on in IMAX 3D, but everything else there, I’m just going to wait until it’s on DVD or streaming. Which is not to say that I don’t think any of these film are worth seeing. It’s just that all that great acting and great directing can be appreciated at home.

I don’t know why or how these trends come about, but it looks like people are paying more attention to the actor’s craft this year, i.e., nearly every nominated film focuses on performance over visual artistry. The only real spectacle in the best picture nominees, Gravity, also got a best actress nomination for Sandra Bullock. Not an actor’s film, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was passed over for the nominations, but it was by far the best film I saw in theaters in 2013. (That it didn’t find a great marketing plan probably didn’t help either.)

You win Best Film in my daydreams.

My congratulations go to the actors, but I prefer those years when the industry pays attention to the films more than the people that make them.